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This special issue marks two firsts from Autonomous Vehicle Technology—the publishing of our annual Buyers Guide and the compilation of articles from the industry’s top execs we call AVTech Futures.

You can read more about our Buyers Guide on pp 4 and 49-61, so here I want to focus on what constitutes the lion’s share of this issue—the AVTech Futures concept. We asked top industry executives and leading analysts to contribute the latest thinking on the future, benefits, and challenges of what we call the AVT ecosystem. That ecosystem, listed on the contents page of every issue of this magazine, focuses on the technologies being developed for vehicle autonomy, connectivity, electrification, and mobility services.

However, it is imperative that AVT mirrors or even drives the vehicle-development community in also considering the broader transportation implications beyond onboard technology.

As vehicles have become more connected, especially over the last decade or two, reaching out to colleagues in other industries has become imperative to ensure top customer-serving transportation solutions. The industry has become less insular and must continue on that pathway as the new-mobility revolution of autonomy and related electrification and mobility services drives the industry forward. So in addition to a continued dialog with our telecommunication and policymaking colleagues, the future of new mobility depends upon greater positive engagement with professionals in city planning, architecture, road/bridge design, legal and insurance disciplines.

What you’ll read about on pp 10-45 in our AVTech Futures feature section touches not only on vehicle technology but also some of this growing outreach to the greater transportation ecosystem. The article submissions look at what’s in store for vehicle cybersecurity, personalization, accelerated product development, sensing and mapping, data, software and electronic architecture, evolving propulsion systems, coatings, and human-centered design. In addition, two of the contributions focus on what the AVT industry can learn from earlier tech revolutions. And consumer education is emphasized in another article, as public understanding of not only the benefits of autonomy and related vehicle technologies but also how the technology will be rolled out and merged with the existing vehicle population will determine its acceptance and ultimate success in the marketplace.

The stakes are high. Consider just some AVT and broader ecosystem stats from recent history:

From a report shortly after we started AVT in 2017, Intel Corp. and partner Strategy Analytics predicted an explosive economic trajectory, growing from $800 billion in 2035 to $7 trillion by 2050, for the emerging passenger economy ushered in by autonomous vehicle technology. Check out more info at Report: Autonomous driving to create $7 trillion economy.

AVT aims to continue the ecosystem dialog with not only another installment of AVTech Futures next year but a regular feed of such high-level thought-leadership submissions, especially for strengtheneing the dialog among industries. Email your ideas to me at jostk@bnpmedia.com.

Kevin Jost is the Editorial Director for BNP Media’s Autonomous Vehicle Technology, planning and directing the creation and commissioning of all content for the startup brand’s websites, social media, newsletters, and magazines as well as market research, native content, webcasts, directories, and events. He brings over 25 years of journalism and engineering experience to the brand and leads a global team of editors and contributors to create and deliver the latest content for automated, connected, electrified, & shared vehicle technologies. Contact him at jostk@bnpmedia.com.

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The global automotive industry – worth $3.5 trillion in annual revenues – faces four concurrent disruptive threats: the connected car, the electric vehicle, autonomous driving technology and the concept of transport-as-a-service. Each threat is potentially existential to legacy carmakers who operate in a low growth, low margin sector that rattles with over capacity, and which is seeing its supply lines reset by cumulative advances in enabling technologies typically deployed by Tier-1 automobile sub-system suppliers. This report focuses on autonomous driving technology.

This issue focuses on the end-to-end transformation of dSPACE, external HMI for pedestrian safety, the latest in over-the-air software updates, Urban Air Mobility commercialization efforts, and our special feature on new mobility and the COVID-19 pandemic.